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Shondor Birns
Alex "Shondor" Birns (21 February 1907-29 March 1975) was a Jewish Mob boss in Cleveland, Ohio. He was murdered in a car bombing by former ally Danny Greene in 1975, as Birns and Greene had backed rival claimants to the leadership of the Cleveland crime family, and Birns had failed to kill Greene in another car bombing. Biography Alexander Birnstein was born in Lemes, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now in the Czech Republic) in 1907 to a Jewish family, and he was brought to New York City at the age of one month. From there, he moved to Cleveland, and he acquired the nickname "Shondor" from the pronunciation of his Hungarian nickname, "Sandor". His family took to bootlegging during Prohibition, and Shondor Birns enlisted in the US Navy in 1923 while underage, being discharged after three months after his age was discovered. In 1925, he was convicted of car theft, and he was arrested 18 times over the course of 12 years. During the 1930s, he joined Maxie Diamond's gang, and he became known as a brutal and ruthless enforcer. During the late 1930s, Birns began to run a loansharking business; casinos paid him to force debtors who fled the state to pay back their debts, often resorting to violence to collect their debts and interest. During World War II, he failed to join the US Army in order to leave prison, and he became a celebrity gangster upon his release in 1944. Cleveland businessman After his 1944 release, Birns became a legitimate businessman as a restauranteur, and he fed police, firemen, and rescue workers for free after a tragic gas explosion killed 134 people that year. During the 1940s, he established a lasting alliance with the Cleveland crime family of the American Mafia, and he kept the black lottery and numbers operations under his control through this alliance. He would survive assassination attempts and be accused of several murders, but he was known as a peacemaker and mediator of disputes by the 1960s. By the 1970s, Birns had mellowed significantly, and he backed John T. Licavoli in becoming the new boss of the Cleveland Mafia. Birns had an initially strong relationship with Irish mobster Danny Greene, but Greene became jealous of Birns' wealth and rackets. Greene also supported John Nardi against Licavoli, and Greene decided to take on Birns. Birns attempted to have Greene killed in a car bombing, but Greene disassembled the poorly-made bomb and decided to send the bomb back to Birns. Death On 29 March 1975, as Birns entered his car behind Christy's Lounge, he was blown up by a C4 bomb, being blown several feet through the roof before landing near the passenger door. His severed legs landed fifty feet away, and his blackened upper body convulsed violently before he gave in to his wounds. He had barely caught a glimpse of Greene watching him enter his car before turning the key in the car door, igniting the bomb and killing him. Category:1907 births Category:1975 deaths Category:Cleveland crime family Category:Americans Category:Jewish-Americans Category:Hungarian-Americans Category:American Jews Category:Hungarian Jews Category:Jews Category:Criminals Category:Mafiosi Category:Killed Category:Czech emigrants to America Category:People from New York City Category:People from New York Category:People from Cleveland Category:People from Ohio